Mass Effect: The Aftermath
by blood-hybrid-of-darkness96
Summary: The story of what happens right after the ending of Mass Effect 3. Oneshot. Surprisingly light on profanity for those who know me.


**A/N: Hey guys, it's me again! I know a lot of people will gasp and say, "He's doing a story OTHER than 'A Dark Path to Tread'? Ermegerd!" Yeah, I do other stories. Usually when the ideas ambush me and beat the ever loving crap out of me. Like the Steam Summer Sale does to my Wallet. This one is a One-shot, so I hope you enjoy. It will not be continued. Duh. This is my character and associated choices by the way.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Mass Effect.**

John Shepard was having a really bad day.

Destroying an ancient race of sentient machines that were hell bent on obliterating all advanced life in the Galaxy seemed like it would be a really good thing. And it was.

But the associated chaos that entailed was not.

As Shepard pushed the rebar and concrete off of him, coughing violently from the dust that clouded the area, he took note of every bit of pain throughout his entire body. Everything ached.

His arms hurt from the strain of lifting the clumps of stone and steel. His lungs hurt from the choking cloud of dust. His legs hurt from being squashed beneath a metric ton of some building. His head hurt for a reason he didn't know. The only thing that _didn't_ hurt was his heart.

 _I did it,_ he thought tiredly. _I destroyed the Reapers. I'm just sorry I had to destroy the Geth and EDI too... Joker is going to want to kill me. But I saved Tali, and Garrus, and everybody else._

As he lifted the last bit of debris from his body, he heard shouts coming from a ways over.

"Oi! Is Anyone alive out there?!" Shepard started. That sounded like Major Coats.

"Over here!" Shepard shouted, his voice hoarse.

"We've got a survivor! Soldier! If you have any flares, fire one off to mark your exact location!"

Shepard checked his torn and ravaged armor for any flares, but found none. "I'm out!" he called, then stood shakily, using the surrounding debris for support. _Thank God I can still move,_ he thought as he struggled out of his concrete prison. He found his way out, and emerged to see it was indeed Major Coats, along with a squad of N7 soldiers, all equipped with Mattock rifles.

"Holy Shit! It's Shepard!" one of the soldiers cried as he scrambled up the pile of debris to Shepard, who looked as though he would keel over any second.

"Admiral! We've got Shepard here! He looks like hell, but he's standing!" Coats said into his comm.

Shepard sat down gingerly, assisted by the N7 who'd scurried up to him. "Biotics are good for something eh?" the soldier joked. Shepard just nodded. Another of the squad climbed the mound, and together the two lifted Shepard on their shoulders, carrying him gently down to the rest, who were preparing a stretcher. As they lay Shepard in it, he groaned quietly. They sat there a moment while most everyone continued to call for survivors, only to find none. Finally, a drop-ship appeared, and the soldiers filed in, two of them carrying Shepard's stretcher. Once they set him down, Admiral Hackett stepped out of the pilot's booth.

"Shepard," he said in his gruff voice. "Glad to see you're still with us."

Shepard tried to rise and salute the human Admiral, but Hackett waved a hand at him. "Don't bother Shepard. After what you did today, I should be saluting you."

"Where's Anderson?" Shepard asked wearily. He vaguely remembered something about him, but couldn't recall exactly what. It was all fuzzy.

"He didn't make it, Commander," Coats said gently. Shepard sat there, quietly digesting the news. Then he did something he hadn't done since before he joined the Alliance. He cried.

Tears streamed down his face as he finally let all his emotions go. Everything that had happened to him, all the people he'd lost. Ashley, Mordin, Legion, Thane. Through it all, he'd held his ground, not showing any weakness, because that's what was needed of him. He'd watched Thessia fall to the Reapers, and it had only made him fight harder. But losing Anderson, a man he saw not only as a friend and mentor, but a the father he never had, broke him.

When Shepard had joined the Marines, a scruffy, dirty street runner with no family and no home, everyone had turned their noses up at him. His drill instructors had basically laughed him off and said he wouldn't survive basic training. His fellow boots had shunned him and treated him like dirt. Anderson, who was in charge of the facility at the time, had watched it all for a few days before approaching Shepard and asking why he kept trying.

"Because," he'd answered. "If I give up and drop out, they'll be right. I'm sick of people not respecting me just because I'm an orphan. I wasn't getting anywhere in the Reds. They only made it worse for me."

After that, Anderson had overseen Shepard's training personally. He didn't go easy, but he treated him exactly like he did all the other boots. Their relationship only grew once Shepard graduated Basic and was recommended for the N7 program.

Through it all. Through Elysium, through the Saren incident, and the Collectors, Anderson had stood by Shepard, giving his full support. Now, he was gone.

Shepard cried all the way to Hackett's ship, where they would treat him for his injuries. No-one seemed to care that the Galaxy's greatest hero, the first human Spectre, was crying like a baby. In fact, Hackett had given him a handkerchief. He only stopped crying when they finally carried him into the ship's medbay. And only then, because he'd run out of tears.

A doctor rushed in and started fussing over him. Shepard just sat there. Once he was all patched up, bandages covering most of his body, and a warning to take it easy for a few weeks, he left, heading to the comm room.

He reached it just as Hackett was dialing the one ship Shepard truly cared about; the Normandy.

Garrus picked up, his image appearing as a holographic ghost before the two men. He evidently only saw Hackett.

"Admiral," he said. "We're crashed on some jungle world. Our mapping systems are shot, so we're doing some repairs to figure out where we are, and to get off this rock." Hackett nodded.

"How is everyone?" he asked.

"As well as can be expected. Joker is crying about EDI," Shepard felt a pang go through his chest. "Tali is catatonic, and everyone else is too busy to really have a reaction."

"Why is Tali'zorah catatonic?" Hackett asked, already knowing the answer and solution.

"Shepard's dead, Admiral. I'm surprised I'm not an empty husk myself, but someone had to take charge here in his absence." Hackett stepped to the side, indicating for Shepard to take his place. He did so slowly, stiffness really setting in throughout his body.

"Admiral? Are you still there? What's... wrong..." Garrus trailed off as Shepard stepped onto the quantum pad, popping up in front of Garrus on the other end.

"Shepard!" a plethora of voices suddenly sprouted up in the background, the loudest being distorted by a mask. It sounded eastern, but was actually not even human.

Garrus was suddenly pushed out of the way and replaced by Tali'zorah vas Normandy, Shepard's Quarian girlfriend. Shepard felt his heart soar at the sight of her, alive and well.

"Shepard! You're alive!" Shepard could hear the tears in her voice, though he couldn't see them because of her helmet.

"Yeah, I am. Stiff, sore, and broken, but alive."

"Kee'lah, I thought I'd lost you..." Tali reached out, as though she could touch her love through the comm network. Shepard desperately wished that were so.

"I'm still here, Tali. It would take more than that to get me away from you forever."

"Yeah, Shepard is alive and the Reapers are gone, whoopie. Let me talk to him, Tali." Shepard cringed when he heard Joker's voice. Tali left his view, grumbling and complaining the whole way, and Joker stood there, an angry glare on his face.

"Joker, I'm really sorry, but would you rather the Reapers still be around? EDI and the Geth made that decision so hard for me, but it was one I had to make." Joker looked like he almost broke right there.

"I get that, Commander, I do. But it doesn't make it any easier. Imagine if you'd lost Tali." Shepard felt his heart break at the very idea. "The Geth can be remade. EDI was one of a kind, and nothing can replace her. I don't..." he cut off as he turned around, everyone hearing a voice that could only be one person.

"I am fine, Jeff. Though I will need Tali to repair my body, I managed to not die."

"EDI? But how?" Joker sounded euphoric.

"I assumed that the Crucible wouldn't be refined enough to only target certain machines, so I did extensive modifications to my core programming. In the event that I would have died as the Reapers did, instead I would reset, shutting down for a length of time and coming back online. It did not work perfectly, but it worked. It was difficult to change the pattern correctly without knowing exactly what would happen." Joker laughed and almost did a little jig, pure joy written on his face. He did three steps, the cringed as his leg cracked.

"Ow..." he muttered as he hobbled off the pad, allowing Tali to get back on.

"Where are you, Shepard?" she sounded desperate, wanting to get back to her love.

Shepard looked at Hackett, who mouthed the word 'Earth', indicating they hadn't jumped anywhere.

"We're still in Sol," he told Tali. "but with the Relays down, how will you get here?" Hackett had told him the Mass Relays would need extensive repairs before they could be used again. Garrus suddenly called out from the other side.

"We finally got the map fixed! We know where we are!" Loud cheers rang out. Tali looked back, then turned back to her boyfriend. "With standard FTL flight, it's only a couple of hours from where we are to you, once we get the ship flying again! That should only take, what? Another hour?" a confirming shout told her she was correct.

Tali and Shepard shared a look, a look full of love, and loss. They both understood that the other had lost someone important, and they couldn't wait to comfort each other, to be in each others' arms again. Tali said one more thing before she cut the comm to hustle the repairs, so as to be in her lovers' embrace sooner.

"Shepard, I'm coming home."


End file.
